Theres a lot going on in the world of music

Oh me, oh my! With so many excellent events and great
goings-on this week I feel professionally unable to place one above the
others. Therefore I've decided to take the easy way out and list, in
one long, Now Playing breath, as many of the delightful deeds as I can
muster.

First here's a reminder of the Sangamon
Songwriters Series inaugural evening featuring the Gordons at the Trout
Lily Café, Thursday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. In last week's column
I failed to mention online information on the entire series is available at
www.myspace.com/ sangamonsongwritersseries and the 2008 lineup is complete.

On Friday, Sept. 19, legendary electric guitarist
Bill Kirchen performs at the Hoogland Center for the Arts Theatre 3 as the
next act in the WUIS-sponsored Bedrock 66 Live! music series. Local
bluesman, jazz player, and the best finger-pickin' guitarist in
Pawnee (and for miles around), Michael Taylor, opens the show at 8 p.m.
Kirchen, immortalized in rock-n-roll history as the guitar picker playing
that awesome part in Commander Cody's hit song Hot Rod Lincoln, is
just a smoker of a player who lives in Austin, Texas, the official Live
Music Capital of the World. I saw him play once at Austin's famed
Continental Club and he blew us all away without working up a sweat. I
would advise bringing your dancing shoes and coming prepared to be awed.

Congratulations are in order for Pleasure Chest, an
area blues band declared winners of the 2008 Illinois Central Blues Club
Blues Challenge contest held during the Old Capitol Blues & BBQ in
August. The group, featuring Shane Denney, Rich Hohmann, Keith Altevout,
Steve Suter and last year's solo/duo contest winner Robert Sampson,
collected a $1,000 prize to help defray expenses when attending the
International Blues Challenge in Memphis next February as a proud
representative of the ICBC and the entire central Illinois community.

Ain't that the way it goes — just when
we're all moaning (well some of us) about the lack of night clubs
featuring live music, along come a few places to save the day. Hallelujah!
Bar None is the newest bar on the block; at the northwest corner of Fifth
and Monroe (formerly Schlotzky's and most recently, a favorite,
late-night, food and fight restaurant) it's right in the thick of the
Fifth Street Strip. The bar looks to have bands on the weekends for now,
expanding the live music into weekdays in the months ahead with local,
regional and national acts in the works. They've got a stage, a house
PA, and a caring attitude toward musicians — I'm all for it!
This weekend for the grand opening they've booked two of
Springfield's best original bands: Micah Walk Band on Friday and the
Damwell Betters for Saturday.

The Planet (formerly Viele's Planet) on the
southwest corner of Second and Jefferson, quietly began making a lot of
noise several months ago booking hard-rocking bands. Lately they've
diversified some and on Sunday nights John Reilly of the talented (and good
looking) Reilly family, plays with a bluegrass-style group while hosting an
open mic for part of the evening. The Plaza (formerly the downtown BJ and
Company) near Fourth and Adams started an upstairs jazz room with music
every Thursday. The New Frank Trompeter Quartet plays in September and
Frank Parker and friends play there too. Check Illinois
Times Pub Crawl.

In a final note, we say goodbye to the Station and
Wednesday nights at Marly's Pub. The hard-working, great sounding,
progressive-jamming band held the mid-week spot for nearly four years and
just recently decided to relinquish the date to open up other
possibilities. Oh the good times that were had. The band plans to play an
acoustic show once a month at Marly's while still touring the
Midwest, selling CDs and rocking creatures all over creation.